February 11, 2026

MORE LIKE THIS, PLEASE: No More Illegal Alien Buyers For Colony Ridge. “Remember Colony Ridge, the housing development northeast of Houston evidently pitched to illegal aliens that boasted such ‘features’ as high crime rates and substandard infrastructure? A settlement between the state and the developer means no more home sales to illegal aliens there.”

Posted at 5:50 pm by Stephen Green

RIP, JOHN EKDAHL:

Flashbacks: Ekdahl tweeted in 2019, “The left, and I’m not trying to be funny or snarky, takes gun ignorance as a source of pride. They absolutely refuse to learn or educate themselves on what they seek to deny their fellow citizens.”

Ekdahl on Bud Light’s implosion in 2023, “The biggest problem isn’t even the boycott; it’s that they’ve become a cultural punchline. This is now like having an AOL email address or driving a minivan. People avoid it so their buddies don’t rip them. Not sure how you fix that as a brand.”

Ekdahl in October of 2024: “My theory on the great liberal McDonalds freakout is this: Donald Trump is not allowed to have fun. Remember, he is the physical avatar of humanity’s cruelty, evil, and malice. The left has also spent a large amount of time, money, and energy though both media and legal campaigns, targeting his livelihood and even his personal freedom all to ensure that the man can never crack a smile again for the rest of his life. And then he did. While donning an apron and serving fries. They can’t handle it.”

And speaking of the DNC-MSM not being able to handle people having fun, from 2017: Watch A Bunch Of Journalists Freak Out After Being Asked If They Know Anybody Who Drives A Truck. “Which brings us to the simple question about truck ownership from John Ekdahl that drove Acela corridor progressive political journalists into a frenzy on Tuesday night: ‘The top 3 best selling vehicles in America are pick-ups. Question to reporters: do you personally know someone that owns one?’ Rather than answer with a simple ‘no,’ the esteemed members of the most cloistered and provincial class in America–political journalists who live in New York City or Washington, D.C.–reacted by doing their best impersonation of a vampire who had just been dragged into the sunshine and presented with a garlic-adorned crucifix.”

UPDATE: 14 Principled Anti-War Celebrities We Fear May Have Been Kidnapped.

—Ekdahl, Buzzfeed, September 6, 2013.

Posted at 5:45 pm by Ed Driscoll

ANSWERS TO QUESTIONS NO ONE IS ASKING: Clavicular’s cult of ‘looksmaxxing’ speaks to the narcissism of our age.

Don’t you hate it when you’re mid-jestergooning, and a group of foids comes and spikes your cortisol levels? We’ve all been there – and it raises the valid question of whether ignoring the foids while munting and mogging moids is more useful than SMV chadfishing in the club.

If those words are completely incomprehensible to you, that means you are enviably offline. A brief translation: ‘jestergooning’ is a derogatory term for the act of making a woman laugh in an attempt to sleep with her. A ‘foid’ is a woman and a ‘moid’ is a man. To have one’s cortisol levels spiked is to be aggravated and stressed out. To ‘mog’ someone is to intimidate them, usually by way of superior physical attractiveness. ‘SMV’ is an acronym, standing for ‘sexual market value’ (how attractive people find you). ‘Chadfishing’ is a play on ‘catfishing’ – trying to fraudulently convince others you are a ‘chad’, or a desirable male. ‘Munting’, as far as I can tell, has no meaning in this context at all.

The above wordsalad came from a now legendary viral post on X about a 20-year-old online influencer and streamer known as Clavicular (real name Braden Peters). He achieved fame – or, more accurately, infamy and ridicule – for being a ‘looksmaxxer’. That is, a member of the online subculture-come-cult dedicated to making oneself more physically attractive, by any means necessary.

Evergreen:

Posted at 5:30 pm by Ed Driscoll

KEEP CUTTING:

Posted at 5:21 pm by Stephen Green

NEW CIVILITY WATCH: Ohio State University placed an assistant professor on administrative leave Tuesday after a viral video showed him tackling a person seeking a video interview with E. Gordon Gee, the university’s former president.

In the video of the altercation, the professor, Luke Perez, appears to be trying to prevent two people from asking Gee further questions and filming him. Mike Newman, who told The Chronicle he is an independent documentarian, took a step toward Perez when the professor struck the camera out of his hand and pushed him to the ground. Perez, who teaches in the Salmon P. Chase Center for Civics, Culture, and Society, directed a request for comment to university communications.

A university spokesman called the incident “very concerning” and said the “faculty member involved” has been placed on leave. He added that campus police are investigating.

Newman, an Ohio State alumnus, told The Chronicle that his neck and shoulder hurt after the incident and that he went to the emergency room.

Newman and D.J. Byrnes, a journalist who writes a Substack newsletter about Ohio politics, entered Smith Lab in an attempt to interview Gee, who is a paid consultant for the Chase Center. The former West Virginia University president has made headlines recently for defending Les Wexner, a prominent university donor, who had a public relationship with Jeffrey Epstein. Late last month, he called attempts to remove Wexner’s name from a building “cancel culture.”

The professor who teaches on civics, culture, and society appeared to do a thorough job of cancelling Newman’s HD camera and microphone:

Posted at 5:14 pm by Ed Driscoll

HOW ARE THOSE TALKS GOING? LIKE SO: F-35s Deploy Closer to Middle East After US Talks with Iran.

More stealthy U.S. fighter jets moved closer to the Middle East on Feb. 9, with a half dozen F–35A Lightning II fifth-generation planes landing at RAF Lakenheath, U.K., after crossing the Atlantic, flight tracking data and air traffic control communications show.

The U.S. has bolstered airpower and air defenses in the Middle East and Europe as the Trump administration has threatened to strike Iran if a deal constraining its nuclear program is not reached.

The F–35s from Vermont Air National Guard’s 158th Fighter Wing departed Burlington Air National Guard base on the morning of Feb. 9 using the callsigns “Tabor 41” through “Tabor 46.”

The F–35s were accompanied by three KC–135 Stratotankers refueling aircraft that departed from Bangor Air National Guard Base, Maine, using the callsigns “Gold 81,” “Gold 82,” and “Gold 83.” Those tankers landed at RAF Mildenhall, a base near Lakenheath, flight tracking data shows.

The jets add to six other F–35s from the squadron, which have made their way to Spain.

Talking softly is always the first, best option, but it helps to keep the big stick in plain sight.

Posted at 4:52 pm by Stephen Green

UNEXPECTEDLY: Bad Bunny Reportedly Lost Record Slice of Super Bowl Viewers Heading Into Halftime Show.

It looks like a record number of Super Bowl viewers stopped watching once Bad Bunny started his halftime performance on Sunday.

That’s according to a new report from Front Office Sports on Wednesday, with reporter Ryan Glasspiegel explaining on X:

Based on my understanding of the data, Bad Bunny lost more [percentage] of the Super Bowl viewership from the end of the second quarter than has ever happened before.

His conclusion is based on quarter-hour ratings data from Nielsen.

Glasspiegel reported 135.9 million people were watching the NBC and Telemundo broadcasts between 8:00-8:14 p.m. ET on Sunday; that dropped to 128.2 million combined viewers between 8:15-8:29 p.m. That exodus of 7.7 million viewers lined up with the halftime show.

“Bad Bunny’s performance occurred during the latter window,” he explained. “This was a decline of 7% from the game’s peak viewership of 137.9 million in the second quarter, and 5.7% from the immediately preceding quarter-hour.”

The article noted that the audience typically increases for the halftime show during most Super Bowls, but last year’s performance from Kendrick Lamar also took a dip when it shed 4% of viewers who were watching towards the end of the first half.

I clicked over to watch the game recap on the NFL Channel, then clicked back to see what the fuss was about, only to see Mr. Bunny was imitating the Weeknd’s 2021 Super Bowl halftime show, with the Weekend’s maze of lights being replaced by a field of polypropylene sugarcane. I quickly clicked back to the NFL Channel.

 

 

Posted at 4:49 pm by Ed Driscoll

PUSH HARDER: GOP lawmakers pushing 3 federal election security bills.

All three pieces of legislation being considered – the SAVE Act, the SAVE America Act, and the MEGA Act – would mandate that states require photo ID and verify the citizenship status of potential voters.

“I think we can trust the outcome of the election, but what I will tell you is that there is still a great concern that in certain pockets of the country, that there’s not strict enforcement of the laws,” U.S. House Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., told reporters Tuesday.

He praised the SAVE America Act, a bill mirroring the House-passed SAVE Act which requires Americans to present proof of citizenship when registering to vote, necessitates in-person voter registration for federal elections, and requires states to remove all noncitizens from their voter rolls.

Since the Senate still hasn’t taken up the SAVE Act after 300 days – despite Republican pressure to do so – House members will vote on the SAVE America Act on Wednesday. The bills are identical except that the latter would also require people to display a valid ID to vote in federal elections.

With valid ID necessary for everything from applying for a job to renting a hotel room, the legislation is “common sense,” Johnson argued.

“There’s only one logical reason that Democrats are opposed to this – they want the people to participate in elections who are not supposed to,” he added. “So the fact that they’re so vehemently opposing this is very telling about their agenda and their motivation.”

So why is the GOP-held Senate effectively opposed, too?

Posted at 3:50 pm by Stephen Green

HEY, BIG SPENDER: Paramount Skydance Says It Will Pay Warner Bros. Discovery an Extra $650 Million per Quarter if Its WBD Takeover Isn’t Completed by End of 2026.

David Ellison’s Paramount Skydance is adding some additional financial promises to its hostile takeover bid for Warner Bros. Discovery as it continues to try to kill Netflix’s deal for WB.

Paramount on Tuesday said it will add an “incremental cash consideration” to WBD shareholders of 25 cents per share, equivalent to approximately $650 million cash value each quarter, for every quarter the proposed Paramount acquisition is not closed beyond Dec. 31, 2026.

That extra “ticking fee” reflects the confidence of Ellison and his team that a Paramount-WBD deal will have a smoother path to regulatory approval than Netflix’s merger with Warner Bros. Paramount (and others) have alleged that Netflix, if it owns HBO Max, would have a virtual monopoly on subscription streaming in multiple markets; Netflix has dismissed this, claiming that even with HBO Max its share of U.S. TV viewing would be 10%, still behind YouTube.

In addition, as part of Paramount’s sweetened deal terms for Warner Bros. Discovery, the company said it would pay the $2.8 billion breakup fee due to Netflix with the termination of the Netflix agreement if WBD shareholders accept Paramount’s $30-per-share offer for Warner Bros. Discovery in its entirety.

I’d much rather see Warner Bros. in Ellison’s hands than the wokesters’ at Netflix, but either way, it’s likely the end of Warner as it’s been known for more than a century.

Posted at 2:48 pm by Stephen Green

DOMINIC GREEN: Say His Name: Rupert Pupkin.

Scorsese’s prince is a pert pup, a quipster on the up and up, but he’s also a triple-plosive time bomb like Travis Bickle (or Jake LaMotta, another human detonator in another Scorsese–De Niro collaboration,1980’s Raging Bull). Scorsese habitually counterpoints the threat of violence with the discharge of humor. The Goodfellas tracking shot through the kitchens of the nightclub leads to a stage-side table and Henny Youngman in full “Take my wife” flow. In Casino, Don Rickles plays a Rickles-like Borscht Belter called Billy Sherbert. In Raging Bull, LaMotta watches real-life straight man Bernie Allen cracking jokes at the Copacabana. LaMotta himself ends up as a small-time comic. His routines resemble the black-and-white futilities of Dustin Hoffman’s reenactment of Lenny Bruce’s monologues in the biopic Lenny (1974).

Like Travis Bickle and Lenny Bruce, Rupert Pupkin is scorched by confusing his transgressive desires with social reality. Thwarted, he reacts by forcing himself onto the screen in the hope that he will impress a young woman and make his mark on the world; in Schopenhauer’s terms, he tries to impose his will on its representation in the world. Scorsese is a lifelong admirer of the dreamlike set pieces in Michael Powell and Emeric Pressburger’s Archers productions, where, he has said, “the fantasy is more real than the reality.” In The Red Shoes, Moira Shearer’s shoes possess her and dance her to death. In The King of Comedy, Rupert Pupkin is possessed by fame. Our last sight is of the red suit that marks his departure from the real world and his entry into the inverted dreamland where the anonymous becomes famous and the loser becomes king.

Pauline Kael missed the point in her review for the New Yorker in 1983. She complained that De Niro inverted the “bravura” extravagance of his characterizations in Mean Streets, Taxi Driver, and New York, New York to make the polite and frustrated Pupkin “a nothing.” Slapstick reminds us that the core of comedy is inversion—of power, of status, of reality. We think fame and money will free us, but Johnny Boy (Mean Streets) and Travis Bickle get shot in the neck. Jimmy Doyle (New York, New York) gets stood up. Jerry Langford eats his TV dinners alone with three TVs and a lap dog. Travis Bickle and Rupert Pupkin, Scorsese has said, are the same “isolated person”: a “nothing” and a “nobody” who dreams big.

But this is not nothing. It is everything. America had always sifted the winners from the losers and called it justice. The modern status economy of images plays the results back in everyone’s face. And the postindustrial economy that took off in the 1980s replicated the fame economy that sorted Americans into a small population of stars and immortals and a mass of ticket-buying “nothings.” When Rupert Pupkin inverts dreams and reality, he performs the loyal American act of chasing his dreams, of getting what you want, at any cost, even if for one night only, like James Cagney at the “top of the world” in White Heat.

Naturally, The King of Comedy bombed at the box office. The critics eventually caught up—two plosive hard k sounds and two cheers for getting it right in the end. Rupert Pupkin’s triumph of delusion previews our culture of self-reflective entertainment, in which show business incites and rewards performative psychosis. Like Mike Judge’s Idiocracy, The King of Comedy told the truth about America. But who goes to the movies for the truth?

Rupert Pupkin, that’s who. And all of us, too—pursuing enlightenment in the dark. When we perceive Pupkin perceiving himself under the TV studio lights, we see ourselves. Our laughter confirms German gagmeister Artie Schopenhauer’s analysis that humor erupts when we realize our ideals do not match our perception. As the FBI waits for him in the shadows, the Hamlet of humor tells the truth in his kiss-off to his first and last audience: “I figure it this way: Better to be a king for a day than a schmuck for a lifetime.”

You might as well laugh.

Jussie Smollett certainly did: The King of MAGA Country.

Posted at 2:22 pm by Ed Driscoll